Old Chengdu Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant 老成都川菜馆

Chinese New Year was around the corner, and XP suggested that we should have a lab lunch together. And being the Sichuanese, he proposed a Sichuan restaurant he had tried before. It's near enough to our workplace, and we're all game for Sichuan food. To tell the truth, I'm gamed for most food actually. Haha...

So 8 of us trooped over for a predictably chilli-laden lunch. Ironically, XP is not much of a chilli person, despite his hometown. But he assured the other none chilli eaters that they have non-spicy options. He pretty much decided the menu for us for the day, the only input from me being 担担面, because I really like noodles, and 回锅肉, because I've long heard about this Sichuan dish but never tried it before.

First dish was 夫妻肺片. Beef slices and beef innards braised in a spicy Sichuan pepper sauce. Very appetizing. I liked it. But poor YJ accidentally bit a Sichuan pepper. Her whole face turned red, and her hot chrysanthemum tea did not help at all. I hurriedly gave her my iced lime juice to quench the fire. Second was my 回锅肉, literally translated as 'return to the pot meat'. It really is pork belly that's cooked once, fried maybe? And it is then returned to the pot and stir fried with its accompaniments. Oily, sinful, spicy and delicious. Yum!

夫妻非片 - braised beef slices and innards

回锅肉 - return to the pot pork

My 担担面 arrived next. Springy Sichuanese mince meat noodles in a spicy broth. It's not fiery, just a mild spicy. Could taste a little of the numbing sensation from the peppers. Nice. But I will come to regret it, as you will see later. But at this point I was so happy with my decision to get this instead of white rice.

担担面 - Sichuan mince meat noodles

蟹黄豆花 came next. Translated: crab roe beancurd. It's a soup of supposed crab roe, but I thought it tasted, and felt, like salted egg yolks, with pieces of silky tofu floating throughout. Thick, and powdery - I really think there's a lot of salted egg yolk in it. It was fragrant, not spicy at all, and warms the belly. It's a must order. Here I started to wish I had white rice to go with the soup, but hang on, I'm still happy with my noodles.

蟹黄豆花 - crab roe beancurd

Then came the first star of the meal. 辣子鸡丁 - chilli chicken. As you can see, there's more chilli than chicken. This. One. Is. Impossibly. Fiery. I ate the first piece without thinking. Crispy, spicy and yummy. Instinctively I took a second piece. And found myself pausing to think about my tongue. It's numbing, and burning. Never felt that before. Hmmm... (I have a pretty high chilli threshold). Then I reached for a third piece, and felt the fire really bursting on my tongue. And my spicy noodles offered me no solace from the heat. I had to turn to my lime juice. Lots of it. Here, I gave in and ordered that white rice. No way I could eat more chicken without it. And I want more of the chicken. It's that good! Love-hate relationship, I called it. Love its yumminess, but almost couldn't stand the heat. E even tried eating the chilli, a stunt that he thoroughly regretted after. After my rice arrived, I was able to enjoy a lot more of the chicken. To show you just how much the chicken is, look at the amount of chilli left after we picked through and cleared all the chicken pieces. It was like treasure hunting, I'm telling you.

辣子鸡丁 - chilli chicken (before digging in)

辣子鸡丁 - chilli chicken (after we picked out ALL the chicken)

The next star arrived soon after. 沸腾水煮鱼 - 'water boiled fish'. A seemingly harmless sounding name. Look at the amount of chilli and pepper floating on the surface. And mind you, that's oil, not soup. But no worries, it doesn't feel greasy at all. And the fish is oh-so-fresh. Even J, who's not a fan of fish because she minds the fishiness, loved it. I joked that maybe the spiciness drowned the fishiness. But that's really not true, because despite the alarming amount of chilli and peppers, the fish itself is surprisingly mild. Soft and flaky, the pieces break easily under an over-strong grip with your chopsticks. Good chopsticks skills, or help from the spoon, is required. Oh, and it comes in one size only. Ginormous. Look at how big it is compared to our soup bowl! Definitely needs a group of friends to finish it. There are fresh bamboo shoot slices and beansprouts at the bottom of the oil sea. You need to fish for them. Don't waste them, they are crisp and delicious, albeit spicier than the fish because they absorbed a lot of the heat from the chillies.

沸腾水煮鱼

We also ordered 莴笋, translated as lettuce by Google Translate. This was recommended to us by the server when we asked for more unique vegetable. For the world of me I couldn't relate the greens in front of me to the lettuce I know, but upon some googling, it really did appear to be the shoot (or stem if you will) of some form of lettuce. It's tender, but still had a crunch, and I really liked it. I think J and I pretty much polished off the whole plate because the rest didn't seem to care for it.

莴笋

Last was our 锅贴 - panfried dumplings. Their rendition are pretty large. I needed two bites to go through each. But it was sooo juicy. When I bit into mine, the juices spitted out onto my plate. Skin was a little on the thick side, but since this restaurant wasn't meant to be a dim sum place, I think it's already pretty good.

锅贴

I really liked this restaurant, and definitely want to bring my friends and family back. I heard that my American boss visited from J's recommendation, and he was apparently served a milder version of the chilli chicken after a failed attempt by the waiter to talk him out of ordering it. It was still almost too much for them to handle. XP found it authentic enough, and that's good enough for me. But do come with big groups, or you can't order too much a variety. And order white rice and lime juice. Remember. My colleagues all got plum juice and they liked it. I hate plums so I can't comment on it. Moreover I personally find that lime juice is a great antidote for chilli.

Cedele (Great World City)

Been to Cedele several times and liked their breads. Just order a soup, and bread is free-flow. You get to go to the bread counter, choose from a selection of breads (typically about 4), slice the bread yourself, pour the olive oil and balsamic vinegar yourself, as often as you wish. On this occasion, it was K's farewell. Given that there are vegetarians and Muslims among us (the not so strict kind), Cedele was perfect for everybody. There was 14 of us, so I definitely wasn't able to get photos of the food at the other end of the table. But we all enjoyed our food.

Cedele boasts of wholesome food. Their placemat features several health advices about the types of foods and their benefits. They have a good selection of health juices and teas. Their soup of the day typically includes a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian option. How's that for being friendly to the vegetarians?

My soup I believe was supposed to be chicken. But somehow the one that was given to me did not at all look or taste like a chicken soup. But the flustered waitress was zipping around a little irritably, so I decided to just have my soup as it is since I'm not picky. Looking through their soup schedule now, I think this looks like a curry pumpkin soup. I've always liked their soups, I think this time was no different.

And it was pasta galore at my end of the table. XP's beef ragu spaghetti was a warm beef tomato stew sort of pasta. The seafood portion looks quite generous in the E's Red Seafood pasta. HY's Arrabiata, on the other hand, looks quite plain in comparison. My Fish Pesto Garlic spaghetti is as the name promised. Well flavored aglio olio served with a fish fillet smothered in pesto.

Shredded Beef Ragu Spaghetti

Red Seafood Spaghetti

Arrabiata Penne

Fish Pesto Garlic Pasta

The farewell boy had the Sirloin Steak sandwich. Weird to be bringing him to a western restaurant for a farewell actually, considering he's going back to the States. But ah well, it's not easy to find a location for our mish mash of dietary restrictions. He liked the sandwich though, as well as the company, I'm sure.

Sirloin Steak Sandwich

YJ's Rosti Sea Bass looked pretty good actually. Generous slab of fish served on a small rosti, accompanied by salsa and garden greens. That girl always choose the healthy stuff.

Rosti Sea Bass

We, of course, gorged ourselves silly with bread before the arrival of all our mains. The vegetarians somehow all sat at the other end of the table, so no photos of their food. But we all enjoyed ourselves. And I know I'll be back again for the occasional lunch treat. And hubby loves their vegetarian options too!


Cedele (Great World City)
1 Kim Seng Promenade
#01-01/02 Great World CitySingapore 237994Tel: 6836 1426Website: http://www.cedeledepot.com/home/home.asp

Caffe Pralet

We chanced upon his little cafe near our workplace a few years ago as a plausible place for a farewell lunch with an ex-colleague. Had been there several times since, for birthday meals, occasional treats or farewell for more colleagues. They serves up decent set lunches that includes a coffee/tea and a cake of your choice. Since they are actually the shop front for the culinary school next door, I daresay their confections are the product of the classes. But fear not. These cakes are up to standard for sure.

This post is summarizing two visits in one. One for FQ's farewell as a FYP student (he had since then returned to join us as a staff), one for a random decision to treat ourselves a good lunch. These photos were tucked away in my phone so long that I almost forgot about them, until I was backing up and categorizing my phone photos not too long ago.

The Ayam Tempra is a Nonya chicken stew served with rice. I only tried a spoon of it, and my recollection is a warm and soya sauce based stew. The seafood baked rice arrived hot, as expected for a baked rice. When YJ dug into it, I caught a whiff of cheesy, creamy richness. She had trouble finishing it, however, because she's not used to cream based dishes and found it too rich.

Ayam Tempra

Seafood baked rice

I had the usual fish n chips. Ginormous serving of fish with fries at the side. But on this occasion, the fish disappointed. Large portion it still was, but the fish was bland. I really needed the tartare sauce to finish it. Because of its size, it's a dish that you sort of will regret not ordering when you see others have it. But after this time round, I doubt I'll order it again.

HUGE fish and chips

Their beef burger is J's favorite. Juicy beef patty in a bun with all those fresh veggies, what's there to not love? You can see how juicy it is after he had his first few bites. FQ loves his breakfast, so he opted for the all day American Breakfast. I vaguely remember him topping up say, $2, for his eggs to be scrambled instead of sunny side up. I didn't try it, and he didn't complain, so I guess it's pretty ok.

Beef burger

Juices from the burger

American Breakfast

I was stuck in a dilemma between a Crispy Grilled Fish with Pasta, and a Herbed Grilled Pork Chop with Black Pepper sauce. In the end I chose the fish in favor of my waistline (what a joke right?), while XP ordered the pork chop. My fish was cooked just right actually, and I liked the grilled asparagus served alongside. However, the pasta, served tossed in olive oil (I supposed), was dry and bland. 2nd bland food in 2 visits! I have a knack for choosing the wrong things. XP's pork chop arrived subsequently and I so regretted my decision. It looked, and tasted, yummy. Although I had to wonder how in the world it managed to get a 'healthier choice' sign next to it on the menu. Ha! XP say because it makes the stomach happy so it's emotionally healthy. Lol!

Crispy Grilled Fish with Pasta

Grilled pork chop 

Cafe Pralet's cakes usually do not disappoint. Of the many cakes we ordered over the two occasions, apparently I only took photos of three. Tiramisu, Cheesecake (can't remember if it's mango or orange flavored) and Red Velvet. Their red velvet is FQ's fave. Moist, sweet and rich, it's by far one of the best red velvety I've had. J really like their cheesecake. Tangy and rich, a nice balance to the sweet red velvet. We also had a mango cake of some kind. I remember it being quite sour and refreshing. I suspect it is the Passionfruit Mango Cheesecake. We had have on several occasions bought their signature chocolate cakes for birthday celebrations. Very rich chocolate mousse-type cake with a crunchy praline layer within, surrounded by a gate of chocolate pieces, topped with a good selection of fruits. Good stuff. But can't have too much of it too often.

Red velvet

Cheesecake

Mango Something

I do like this little cafe for their desserts, and a few of their mains. I've heard it's a nice place to chill for an afternoon tea too. They also have vegetarian options such as tofu burgers on their menu.


Caffe Pralet
Address: 17 Eng Hoon Street, 
#01-04 Eng Hoon Mansions, 
Singapore 169767 
Tel: 6223 5595
Website: http://www.caffepralet.com/
Menu at http://www.creativeculinaire.com/CafeMenu.pdf

Yishun 925 Chicken Rice

I saw this eating place recommended by a neighbor on our estate Facebook page. I love a good chicken rice, and hubby was doing night classes at that time. So it sounded like a perfect on-the-way-home dinner alone.

I'm not a fan a eating out alone, especially in a coffeeshop where I have to find seat, order food and order drinks somehow without losing my seat. I don't fancy the 'chope seat with tissue paper' method. So I solved the problem by packing home instead. Simple dinner of chicken thigh rice.

This stall is a little more commercialized than usual hawker stalls. You place order at the cashier, is given an order slip, and return the slip upon collection of your food. I was expected quite a wait, and was quite surprised to receive my packet before I finished taking a decent photo of the signboard.

That packet of rice made me extremely hungry on my 20 minutes bus ride home from Yishun Interchange. It smelled sooooo good. It's aroma floated up to my nose throughout the entire ride, making me hungrier with each second. I simply couldn't wait to get home and devour the packet. And devour I did. I opened it up immediately after getting home, paused to snap a picture, and proceeded to wolf down the whole pack.

Alright. I did pause a little to chew slowly and enjoy the flavor. The rice is very aromatic, and cooked just nice. Fluffy grains of rice that aren't mushy. The chicken was tender, and perfectly flavored. The chilli... I can't remember. I ate this back in May 2012. Hubby graduated after that and I no longer had dinner alone, so haven't gone back for chicken rice. That coffeeshop doesn't have a vegetarian stall. I'm craving chicken rice recently after watching someone eat a packet in a movie a few days ago. I think it's time to revisit 925.

Shashlik

Haha! Here's another birthday entry.. For those that are wondering, YES I usually have a one month celebration for my birthday.. J and SY are cracking their heads on where to bring me for birthday treat and I conveniently suggested Shashlik. This is not my first time there and their baked alaska and lamb shashlik have certainly brought me back there many times. 

Shashlik is well hidden at level 6 of Far east shopping centre and been around for a long long time, they brand themselves as a Russian Restaurant but I feel their food is more inclined to Hainanese western homely style food.

We ordered mushroom soup for SY and beef borsch for Me and J and half dozen escargots to share. Mushroom soup is simple and comes with pieces of fresh mushrooms, tuaste wise will be more like mushroom in chicken cream soup and I taste a tinge of Campbell soup taste in it. I don't usually recommend their mushroom soup.

Borsch on the other hand was marvelous, it has a dab of sourcream to balance the sourness of the tomato, comes with a chunk of beef in the soup. That particular piece that I had was tough but still I enjoyed the rest of the soup. Photo wasn't available because I was too hungry. LOL! Escargots are just passable, I had better at Mariner's corner and Vines.

Mushroom Soup

Escargots

We decided to order 2 mains to share, so we can keep space for dessert and ordered chicken shashlik and lamb shashlik to share. Shashlik comes with vegetables and thick french fries on the side, the server will push a trolley with an empty hotplate to the tableside and put the meat onto the hotplate in front of the customers. Both chicken and lamb are nicely cooked, juicy and flavorful, sizzling hot on the hotplate, between the two I prefer the lamb. I do not like the green pea+corn+carrot mixture and fries are your regular frozen fries. They also have a small plate of sourish vegetables thats quite appetizing.

Lamb shashlik(top) and Chicken shashlik (bottom)

Next, star of the night! Baked alaska. Server will heat up some liquor, I am guessing whisky? and while it burns he will pour it onto the ice cream cake. The white parts are whipped egg white with sugar topped with some canned syrup cherries. You gotta eat this fast before it gets runny, each mouthful will be absolute heaven. Ice cold Vanilla ice cream with melty egg white with a tinge of liqour taste... HHmmmmm....

Baked Alaska

Overall, its an enjoyment dining there for I value the taste over ambience, in fact theres an old school feel to the place that i liked. Average spending will be about $40 per pax, dependent on the orders. This place might not be suitable for your romantic first date and do not expect excellent service over there. However for those lamb lovers, this place is worthy of a visit. From previous dining experience, their beef and fish seem to be on the tough side and I don't really like their other dessert selection.

Shashlik Restaurant

545 Orchard Road

#06-19 Far East Shopping Centre

Tel: 67326401 / 67343090

Dean & Deluca

It suppose to be a birthday lunch, me and R were hunting for lunch place at about 2pm at Orchard Central when we chanced upon Dean & Deluca so we decided to give it a chance. Dean & Deluca is a cafe that serves all day brunch and also sells some atas grocery stuffs like truffle oil. You need to queue and pay for your orders and it will be served to your table. 

Being a fan of truffle oil, I am very much tempted by their mushroom soup with truffle oil (~$10) and we also decided on the American Country Breakfast (~$22) and Belgian Stack (~$21).

Interior of the cafe: Self-service counter

Table tag for food delivery

Orders came pretty fast after orders, we need to help ourselves to drinks and cutlery. Mushroom soup came first and it's disappointing, soup is kinda bland and tasteless, it comes with a piece of bread in the soup which goes well with the soup. However, I can't detect any truffle taste and the soup isn't blissful at all. 

Mushroom soup with truffle oil

Belgian Stack came next, sauce and ice cream tastes homemade, though everything goes well together, it's just mediocre. It just looks like how it suppose to taste. Quite a letdown, waffles are not piping hot and does not live up to its pricetag, we definitely expected more from the $21 we are paying. Only redeeming point is that waffles although not hot, its not soggy either. I can only say I had better from Gelare. 

Homemade Waffles, Fresh Mixed Berries, Red Currant, Drizzled with Vanilla Creme Anglais, Dean & DeLuca’s Grade A Organic Maple Syrup & Raspberry Coulis

American Country Breakfast came last, servings are huge! I am not a big fan of all day Breakfast but this is definitely GOOD! R commented that my breakfast set is much more worth it than his Belgian stack. Eggs are smooth and nicely scrambled, bacon nicely crisped, hashbrown tastes homemade from real potatoes and in short it's just one plateful of goodness. I like the sausage the most, it's not your regular sausage from supermarket but theres a nice bite and they added herb to balance the meatiness of it. Even the tomato is sweet and juicy! Portions abit too much for 1, so I shared some it with R.

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Eggs, Bacon, Hash Brown, Sausage, Sauteed Portobello Mushroom, Vine-Ripened Cherry Tomatoes & Toasted Farmhouse Multi-Grain Bread

Overall dining experience still pleasant, the breakfast set saved the day and it's a nice place to chill out and have your Tai Tai High Set and grocery shopping. LOL! Might come back when I have cravings for power-packed breakfast.

Dean & DeLuca Singapore

181 Orchard Road,

#04-23/24 Orchard Central,

Singapore 238896

Tel: 65097708

Website: www.deandeluca.com.sg

美人锅: Tsukada Nojo Restaurant

Alright, it took me 2 visits to 美人锅 and several reminders from Gracie to complete this entry. Tsukada Nojo Japanese Bijin Nabe Restaurant is located at Level 3 of the new wing of Plaza Singapura. They open at 5pm for dinner and only serves their hotpot during dinner. During lunch, they serve only ramen and according to them the soup base is the same. 

Other than their much raved about soup base, this place has a pretty interesting reward system. After your first visit u will earn the title of  "assistant manager" and will be "promoted" on your second visit. Reward will be either "Maximum Fries" or "Edamame".

We decided to pay this place a 2nd visit for our Poly class gathering for 6 pax on a Saturday night. We placed our names at 5.15pm and its not till close to 7.30pm that we get our seats. So maybe not the best place to have your big grp gathering.

Reward: Maximum Fries

We also ordered onigiri wrapped in bacon and topped with mayo seasoned with yuzu salt.. Very NICE!! Warm japanese rice wrapped with pork bacon and grilled. Yuzu salt gives a slight zest taste to the mayo. There are a total of 4 flavours and according to "I", this tastes the best.

Onigiri

This is another appetizer that we ordered, i forgot the actual name of it and we don't really like it. A tad too much vegetables and abit too bitter for my liking. Salmon is rather fresh though.

Salmon with ALOT of vegs wrapped in rice roll

Finally our soup base is here! Its placed in a claypot on an induction cooker. As you can see, it looks like slabs of beancurd which is the collagen chicken soup, the soup that makes u a 美人 (beauty). It melts after heated and reveals the chicken meat beneath. It's stated in the menu that the soup base is prepared by boiling chicken, water and salt only, we did not feel thirsty after the meal so I supposed what they stated is true. =) After the soup brings to a boil, we suppose to scoop abit into a sake cup and taste it... yummy. Definitely one of the best chicken soup I ever had.

Melting soup base with chicken meat

These are the ingredients, portion for two person. There are 3 kinds of noodles to choose from: rice noodles,   yellow noodles and thick mochi mochi noodles. We went for Thick Mochi Mochi noodles, good choice. It looks like ramen but its more springy and extra bouncy.

Ingredients, portion for 2

Their service is pretty good, the server will help to place the vegetables and stuffs into the pot so you can take your time to savour the soup and chit chat. =) You can also eat the chicken meat with their special sauces provided. Watermelon radish and chicken meat balls are nice, making this pot even more heavenly. You can ask for soup refills and refills comes in slabs of beancurd-like soup base.

Overall, we ended up spending abt $30 per pax after tax and service charge. There's a warm and homely feel to the place and the good service makes up for the little teething problems they have. have. However, due to the space constraint, the waiting time can be a killer. Soup is actually flavorful without being too overpowering so you wouldn't feel sick or gelat at the end of the meal and for sure will leave the place with a wide smile on your face.